Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour: Review-in-Progress

Many people probably raised their eyebrows when Nintendo announced Welcome Tour as a kind of introductory title for Switch 2. In many ways, it is reminiscent of Wii Sports in that the game is intended to serve as a kind of demo of the new hardware and present the possibilities it offers.

My spontaneous thought at the time was that it should have been included with the console in the same way as Wii Sports was, which contributed greatly to making the Wii Nintendo's then biggest console success. Welcome Tour has nowhere near the same stylish, stripped-down, intuitive appeal of Wii Sports, and is found rather at the other end of the scale. It's all about super-small characters, lots of text, and a surprisingly complex layout.

During a recent visit to Nintendo Germany in Frankfurt, I finally got the opportunity to try out Welcome Tour to see if it has what it takes to stand on its own, even if it is sold as a heavily discounted title. And I have to say I'm a little surprised... in a good way.

Welcome Tour certainly lives up to its name, and the entire game (or at least the part I got to try out) takes place on a giant Switch 2 console and its respective accessories. I play as an incredibly small character, and on top of the console are a number of tents that act as demo stations or quiz desks with staff operating them, all while people walk around like tourists. Everything on the console, such as buttons, ports, speakers, magnets, and more are clickable and if you press them you get a little explanation of what they do.

By looking at everything, successfully playing demos, and partaking in quizzes, you then unlock new areas of the console to visit. I took my little character (who can be personalised) and started exploring, from the huge left Joy-Con 2, then the screen, and then the right Joy-Con 2. Progressing isn't always easy and requires a certain number of medals and other items, which turn out to be quite well hidden.

For my own part, I was a little surprised at how detailed Nintendo are in their descriptions of everything. Welcome Tour really goes into more depth than you might think, and when I clicked on the sensor that acts as a mouse pad, I learned how Nintendo worked with different sensor choices because there is a little more distance between the sensor and a mouse pad than on a normal PC mouse. Similarly, I learnt how the vibrations in the Joy-Cons 2 can also be used to create sound, and how the technology achieves this, which is illustrated by the unmistakable sound of picking up a penny in Super Mario Bros. There's often a bit of history thrown in too, like Nintendo reminding us that they actually released an official mouse back in 1992 with Mario Paint and also had the Nintendo 64 Mouse in Japan in 1999. The fact that the Joy-Con 2 works as a mouse is therefore more familiar rather than something completely new for Nintendo.

After reading up on a particular topic, you can go to a Quiz disc to take a quick quiz on a particular subject. The questions aren't particularly difficult if you've actually read the signs around the counter, but if you haven't, some of them are often almost blind guesses. It's an unusual approach that means I'm studying what are effectively Nintendo advertisements, which both reinforces my view that it probably should have been included with the console anyway, while also making me realise that it's certainly not for everyone, which is likely why Nintendo didn't want to bundle it.

The various demo tents found here and there are all dedicated to different features of your Switch 2, and they're pretty fascinatingly designed. Take, for example, the way in which Nintendo chooses to illustrate 4K graphics. They do this with the beloved level 1-1 in Super Mario Bros., and show how small and stamp-like it is on a true 4K screen. The entire level fits in a small portion, in which you not only have to play through it but also, among other things, pass it equipped with a Fire Flower, go down a green pipe, and snag a 1UP mushroom. For me, being of an age, this was hallowed and familiar ground (although I did manage the n00b feat of dying instantly on the very first Goomba, taken aback by how incredibly small everything was), but a younger person next to me struggled for a good 15 minutes to find the invisible block that gives a 1UP mushroom.

Other exercises I tried included guiding a ball through a maze using the Joy-Con 2 as a mouse, identifying the frame rate at which objects flew across the screen (to illustrate the superiority of 120 frames per second), and a maracas mini-game that demonstrated how good the new shake feature is. The latter impressed greatly, with the Joy-Con 2 clearly feeling different when a maraca was filled with larger or smaller objects.

My favourite of the demo tents was a Twister-like story where you had to put your fingers on coloured squares (some demos had to be played on TV, others on the device's screen, and this was one of the latter) to try to activate all 10. My fingers quickly intertwined and I still thought it was a fun bit of trivia that offered something new. All in all, these demo tents are basically nothing special, but they're entertaining nonetheless and fulfil the purpose of really demonstrating the hardware as well as encouraging you to try again to set records so you can get more medals and unlock new stuff.

Aside from Nintendo obviously wanting to make an extra buck on Welcome Tour instead of bundling it, my time with the game has still made me understand why they sell it separately. It's plot heavy, has a lot of text, and feels designed for older gamers, preferably those with some knowledge of Nintendo history. I think it's a game that many kids and beginners would dislike, and it's certainly not a title for everyone. It is, however, a title to my taste, even though I have only had time to explore some of what there is to experience. I'll tell you more about whether or not it's worth picking up in the finished review coming in a few days.